Mounted Archery - a guide to making a leather quiver. Part 1

For those of you at home playing, and may have a little bit of a creative streak (or not!) you would understand that some times things you really want to buy just cost too much or don't look the way you want them to, or are not the right colours etc. I am one of those people who see things and want them but think 'but can I make it myself?' not only to make things cheaper, but to make things exactly how I want them, and to feed the creative monster in my brain.

 I am a bit of a geek on the side so I went to a comic book convention in 2010 and saw people in costume and thought to myself once again 'I can make that!' I have been making costumes ever since!

So once again I have found a costume I want to do, a medieval style elf! This ties in with my new found love of  mounted archery thanks to the guys at the Historical Equestrian Games Australia. The group have run a few clinics I have been to now. Check them out at;
 https://www.facebook.com/HEGAus/
http://historicalequestriangames.com.au/

I bought myself a bow from Silver Vixen - specifically the 28 inch Black Snake. Sam from Silver Vixen was ever so helpful with our purchases. Check them out at;
https://www.facebook.com/SilverVixun/
http://www.silvervixen.com.au/

Next I confess I bought some cheapy arrows from wish.com but hey they work fine and were going to get me out of trouble as a beginner!

These particular arrows I found were easy to shoot, even though they only cost a few dollars each.

From wish.com they were around $2 each for fiberglass 30 inch arrows.

​Not bad!

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So not only do I have a new costume I want to create, I want to have a cool quiver for my arrows I have acquired but could not find anything I liked. I must confess I am no professional when it comes to making anything. But I am good at improvising so I decided to make a quiver. In comes the costume maker!

​Supplies so far is leather that I ordered, specifically a double shoulder in a few mm, from Tandy Leather in Minto NSW. The leather is a beige colour and completely unaltered. That way I can stain it and paint it in colours I choose. It's not too thin so it won't be floppy but not to thick so it won't be really stiff. 

​ I also ordered an array of leather paints in several colours. I already have a few leather stains in the studio but I think I may head towards a very dark brown or black.

I shopped around and locally these particular colours in this brand were very expensive as you would imagine. I ended up ordering them directly from their website at https://angelusdirect.com and including postage I got more bang for my buck.

To begin, I determined how long my quiver will be. My arrows are about 30 inches long and I don't want them poking out too far. To make a pattern as with everything, I do it on normal paper. For this project I sticky taped two pieces of A3 paper together. On this I fold it in half an on the crease line I begin the sketch of the quiver. The pattern is cut out and it produces the stencil for my quiver!

Stay tuned for further updates on my progress! I will be cutting out the leather, making straps, carving images into the leather, painting and staining the leather, stitching it together and hopefully producing something nice!